To many people, One Battle After Another is the movie of the year so far. This movie took director Paul Thomas Anderson 20 years to write the screenplay. Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Teyana Taylor star in this political thriller. Compared to Paul Thomas Anderson’s usual direction, this movie is such a change of pace. The movie starts off with revolutionaries trying to start a freedom movement; however, their efforts are stopped by Col. Lockjaw. Sixteen years later, Lockjaw reemerges to take the daughter of one of the ex-revolutionaries.
The Oscars have a first-time award for best ensemble, and this movie may be the frontrunner. Everyone gives a great performance. DiCaprio was good, but I wouldn’t say this was award-worthy. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed his character very much. He always gives great performances, so it is hard to say one is less than the others. His character is very funny while being paranoid and high, but he was able to give great emotional moments with his daughter as well. Benicio Del Toro as the sensei gave many comedic moments as well, and he was one of my favorites among a stacked cast.
The MVP of this movie was Sean Penn. He plays Lockjaw, the antagonist, and the character is despicable and racist while also being very off-putting and perverted. He commands the screen every second that he is on it. Sean Penn adds many great, unique mannerisms to Lockjaw, such as a limp and small facial movements. His performance deserves an Oscar nomination at least. However, he has already won two, so I don’t know if he will win.
The score in this movie, composed by Jonny Greenwood, served as another character. It was constantly in the background, and it made many of the moments very tense. I won’t be surprised when this is nominated for Best Score. The score, combined with the camera work, made for a very great technical movie. The road chase involving hills is probably the best example of this. The camera is attached to the car, and the hills block the view in front of the car. The suspense builds on each ride up and down the hill.
Much of the long runtime was fast-paced, but the beginning of the movie felt slow. I wished the beginning of the movie had explained more of the time period this was set in. The politics in this movie reflect right now very well, but I didn’t know what, specifically, the revolution was for or against. The revolutionaries were calling for war, but this was never seen either besides blowing some buildings up.
There is a white supremacist group in this movie called the Christmas Adventurers Club. At times, I felt that the group was out of place. Although it helped set up the very racist tones and give some funny moments, it also made the story clunky at times. This group made Lockjaw’s story come to an unsatisfying end. Originally, I didn’t like what happened to Lockjaw, but then they brought his character back. After they bring him back, they do something even less satisfying. If it weren’t for this mishandling, I probably would have been fine with the group.
Compared to my theater, I found this less funny than I thought it would be. My theater was laughing at every joke, and I didn’t understand. Sometimes, when everyone is laughing, it helps to make it seem funnier, but this time, I just felt lost. There were still many funny moments, but not every joke landed.
If One Battle After Another didn’t have such great ratings when it came out, I think I would have enjoyed it more. After watching it, I felt very disappointed because I had such high expectations. I certainly need to watch this with more tempered expectations and see how I like it. I still highly recommend this movie because I enjoyed it, and everyone else seems to love it.
Final Verdict: Go See It In Theaters (3.5/5)
Junior Ranon Travers is a Contributing Writer for the College Reporter. His email is rtravers@fandm.edu.